Smith frustrated with seven-goal Rangers

Rangers manager Walter Smith admitted he is frustrated at his side's inconsistencies despite seeing his team thrash ten-man Hamilton 7-1 on Saturday.

The Ibrox side bounced back from last weekend's defeat to Hearts, which saw Rangers slip seven points behind Celtic in the Scottish Premier League, to put on a magnificent display against Hamilton.

With Celtic not playing Hibernian until Sunday, the Ibrox club reduced the gap at the top to four points.

But the Ibrox boss said his side need to start matching the level of consistency shown by their Old Firm rivals, who have won their last 12 league matches in a row, if they are cut back their lead further.

“There is a frustration inside of me about our team at the moment,” admitted Smith.

“I think we are playing very well footballing-wise over the season and we have had these couple of games of real inconsistency at Tynecastle and Love Street.

“We had the majority of the possession of the ball and territorial advantage in both the games and yet we didn't manage to get the win. We have been playing well enough over the season but we've just not been consistent enough.

“That is where Celtic have the advantage at the moment as they are showing a level of consistency that we've not been able to match. It's not just about our performances in away games.

“Even in the game against St Mirren at home we were 2-0 up and should have been out of sight and we were put under pressure in the final ten minutes because of that.”

On Saturday, a Kris Boyd hat-trick helped Rangers to come from behind to record the biggest win of the season.

Hamilton had taken the lead in the second minute when James McArthur scored but they held it for only eight minutes when Kenny Miller, on his return from injury, equalised.

Boyd's hat-trick and goals from Kyle Lafferty, Nacho Novo and Steven Davis made it a magnificent seven with Hamilton's Martin Canning seeing red.